The Puffer Forum

Is the water surface rippling? That's how O2 is exchanged.

Yeah it is. The filter output and the powerhead both make waves. Could anything else cause him to be like this? I'm stumped right now. Thanks for your input.

maybe he just likes the flow?

He's not in the flow. he's actually on top of one of two powerheads on that side of the tank. The one he is on is inactive. It's a real bummer, I'm rooting for him to pull through but It's not looking good and I don't think I have many options right now.

As long as he's eating, there's hope. Try feeding him as much as possible, to make up for the IPs.

I fed him a few worms and he ate them but he still isnt doing too well. I added a few recent pictures to my album:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... /crayfish/
I am also uploading a video. Can anyone tell me anything that I can do to help him? At this point I really have no idea what is wrong with him and I am hoping someone has had experience with something like this or similar to this.
Thanks

Fish is getting weaker, now spending all of his time on top of the powerhead. He seemed to want to eat when I tried feeding but made a really weak effort. I'm frustrated because I don't feel that I am getting any answers and my fish's condition is deteriorating fast. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Did you checked the amount of ammonia in his shipping bag? The last time we ordered fish online (from a different but reputable company), both had ammonia problems and both fish suffered damage; one fish died within 24 hours. Also, ich attacks the gills before you see any spots on the fish; sometimes you don't ever see spots before the fish succumbs from the gill damage caused by ich. The problems your fish is having sound to us like they could be due gill damage; adding an airstone and limiting products added to the water couldn't hurt.

Have you seen him pass any worms? Your porc if very stressed which could bring on a whole host of problems. I hope he gets through this with all the loving care you have provided. I'm sorry I can't offer any advice on how else to treat him.

I have not seen him pass any worms, although I treated him with metro+. I am confident that he got quite a bit of the stuff in him because I injected three earth worms pretty well with the stuff and he ate all three.
I did not get to check the amount of ammonia in the shipping bag. I checked my tank just a minute ago and its at 0 though. If he did get gill damage, there is really nothing I can do right?
It is possible that he has ich and I am not seeing the signs of it yet. How can i confirm and catch it early?
The fish stayed lodged under a rock most of the day but came out when I killed the lights and ate an earth worm very readily. The poor guy's got heart, I'll give him that much.
Thanks.

ok well im gonna just ask a stupid question but might be giving advice at the same time idk here it goes?

can you raise temp in a salt water tank like you can in a freshwater tank to help deal with ich other parasites? idk anything about marine but i just read the thread and was thinking of ideas, idk if it works for a saltwater tnak but i know it works with fresh. maybe you could just bump the temp up a few degrees and see how he does.

Nope, totally different parasite.

The skin on his back is not peeling but it looks almost like he has small cobwebs that go from spines to spines in a few areas. Is this anything? Also, he may have been stressed before I got him because he has quite a few broken spines or some that are just at weird angles.

crayfish wrote:The skin on his back is not peeling but it looks almost like he has small cobwebs that go from spines to spines in a few areas. Is this anything? Also, he may have been stressed before I got him because he has quite a few broken spines or some that are just at weird angles.

The cobwebs may be similar to what I see on my stars and stripes puffer. When he lays in the sand or wedges himself between the rocks he gets this cobweb look with sand attached to him. He will usually shake it off.
Now for the spines on the porc I don't think they are broken spines if you have a porc like I have they are called soft spines. I spoke with pufferqueen about this because I thought they were some kind of worms attached to the puffer. Also if you only had the porc for a few days it may just be getting use to it's surroundings. Especially if it's eating after you turn the lights off. You may just have a shy puffer.

Thanks for the ID of the cobweb stuff. It does appear that they cobwebs appear when he hides and scrapes against stuff like rocks.
I really want to believe that he is just shy but he literally wedges himself under rocks to the point where he cannot get out and does not move at all until there is food. I have had him about a week and a half now so I'm afraid its not just a shyness problem...?